Day 71: The Space Museum - The Final Phase

The final episode of this story starts with what Ian actually saw when he walked into the room. The Doctor is asleep in some sort of chamber. Normally when the Doctor is in this situation it would lead to him being written out for the next episode but as this is the final episode of the story that is not going to happen. After spending several moments of talking about how the Doctor was cold in the machine but was still conscious we are reminded about the mystery of how the regulars ended up in the cabinet. Had you forgotten about it? I know I did so it was a nice reminder. Barbara spends the first 10 minutes of the episode doing very little before reuniting with Vicki and the Xerons. It’s nice to have the regulars are reunited. I’ve discovered that I actually like this foursome more than the previous.

The moment of revelation that the regulars don’t necessarily have to change their behaviour to prevent themselves from being in the cabinets but the others is a nice one in the story. The revolution that Vicki helped start is what they hope will change their fortune. The revolution itself doesn’t actually last that long and they seem to spend more time preparing for the revolution than the fighting itself. Actually the Xerons don’t really seem that good, try as I might I just find myself not really caring about their petty dismay at the Moroks. Maybe if there were some older people in the group then they might have worked more as the good guys. Normally if I don’t like the good guys then I side with the baddies but even the Moroks are poor. They are slightly more menacing in this episode but it’s a bit too late.

The answer as to what caused the different time track and the mystery of the regulars in the cabinets seemed to be a bit of an add on but it was quite a similar answer to what caused the problems in ‘Inside the Spaceship’. It was a satisfactory ending to the episode and it was good how the Xerons decided to dismantle most of the things in the museum and the Doctor takes something to put in the TARDIS which becomes integral to the next story. The final scene must have been a surprise for viewers in 1965. A Dalek was seen briefly in the first episode but to see one in all its menace must have come as a shock and they would have been wanting the next Saturday to come.  

Day 70: The Space Museum - The Search

After the mystery of the opening episode and the humour of the second. It seems that its been replaced with nothing. We get to see how the Morok’s really don’t like one another and are even quite nasty to each other whereas the Xerons are still a hiding around trying to stage a revolution against the Moroks. The regulars have all now split up with the Doctor being prepared for the museum, Vicki having some lunch, Barbara hides then tries to get out of a room before being gassed and Ian is walking around threatening people.

I don’t know whether it’s the fact that I’m not really in the mood for this episode or what but I am hard pressed to remember what is going on in the early part. It only really gets interesting when Vicki becomes more involved and helps the Xerons gain access to the armoury. She gets to use a bit of her feistiness and also her intelligence and it makes up for the poor way she was treated in the previous episodes. In this episode she has to try and get around a truth machine that is blocking the Xerons from the guns. It does raise the purpose of a machine that can be changed so quickly.

The cliffhanger is quite a good one because all we see is Ian looking in the camera’s direction and simply saying “Doctor”. We don’t see him but it paints a wonderful image as to what we will see in the final episode. I cant say that I was as bowled over by this episode as I was by the previous two. It picked up the final half but the first half was lacking in any excitement.

Day 69: The Space Museum - The Dimensions of Time

After the very intruiging opening episode, it was down to business and this is where I was worried that things were going to go downhill. It’s in this episode where we get to encounter the locals. We are introduced to the people called the Moroks. They are dressed in white who are very weary of their surroundings which are broken. Then we meet the people who are dressed in black who are noticeable for having two sets of eyebrows with the top lot being more ridiculous.

There is the question as to what events led to them being in the cabinets. They decide to spend a portion of the episode walking through corridors and its not long before they are separated. I like how the next time we return to Xerons the Doctor has managed to tie up one of them. It seems quite like the Doctor that he might look like an old man he is quite sprite and the scene is made even more humorous when his hiding spot is revealed to be inside the Dalek seen in the previous episode. The Xerons are the nicer ones but they are a bit limp and its easy to see why they appear to be the oppressed. The Moroks have got hold of the Doctor and claim that they can get the information from the Doctor because of a chair that he uses but the Doctor is too clever for them. At this moment it doesn’t really make sense why the two groups seem to be at odds with each other though based on what we had seen in the episode its clear that the men in white are bad and the men in black are good.

Ian is quite irritable which is quite unlike him. I like how this is a different side to the character that’s quite a breath of fresh air. Even Barbara isn’t immune from being a bit hot tempered. That’s not to say that its all serious. There’s a lot more humour in this episode which has replaced the mystery. Barbara seems quite concerned about Ian destroying a ‘good cardigan’ and Ian is trying to tear it with his teeth. The problem that the trio of Ian, Barbara and Vicki have is that all they do in this episode is walk around a lot. Only the Doctor gets to do something different

The episode still has the feel of a mystery but some of it has been replaced with humour. The story has never had the best of reputations but I must say that my opinion is starting to change. I don’t think it’s a classic story but its still enjoyable.

Day 68: The Space Museum - The Space Museum

The Space Museum is one of those stories that has gotten a bad rap of fans over the years even though I’m not entirely sure why. After a somewhat run of disappointing stories it seems on the evidence of this episode that the bad run is over. The story starts off with the regulars frozen on the spot and when they start moving again they look somewhat different. The whole episode is about mysteries and the first one occurs within the first 90 seconds of the episode. They have changed their clothes without realising it. Other mysteries include the glass of water that Vicki drops, the fact that they done leave any footprints when they are walking on the sands, the fact the guards don’t react when Vicki sneezes.

The idea of a museum in space is quite a fun one as it’s no different from a normal museum. Its an empty museum except for some guards who appear in white and some other people who appear in black. Neither group interact with the regulars which I thought was an interesting and brave decision. This debut story from Glyn Jones is steeped in mystery and that’s why I think for the first time since ‘The Dalek Invasion of Earth’ that I have become enthusiastic about a story.

There are some nice effects used in this episode. First comes when Vicki drops the glass of water and it gets reversed and ends up back in her hand. It’s one of those moments that must have seemed magical back in 1965. Then there is the moment when Vicki puts her hand through an exhibit. It’s quite a basic effect but it still looks good and helped add to the mystery.

There’s a nice moment when we see a Dalek and its seems like a marker point to keep them in the viewers mind as they will return in a few episodes. I like how Vicki comments that the Dalek looks friendly. As the regulars don’t interact with the supporting cast and we don’t hear from them it means that it’s the regulars that move the story. They all work well together but there was a moment where the Doctor talks to Vicki about not touching any of the artefacts like she was a five year old. I felt like we had gone back twelve months to how Susan was treated by the Doctor, Ian and Barbara. She’s even dressed like a child which is rather disappointing as I had high hopes that they would learn from their mistakes and make Vicki a stronger person but based on the evidence of the last couple of episodes that doesn’t look like this is the case.

The moment when the regulars look at themselves standing in the display cabinets. It raises the question as to how they got there.  There is a moment where there are stills of things that have happened which is basically a highlights package of the episode. Footprints start to appear and the cabinets disappear so weirdly by the end of the episode they have ‘arrived’ on the planet Xeros. The episode is a very good one but I know in my hear that the rest of the story isn’t going to be like this but lets just enjoy the moment of a solidly written episode with great performances and smooth direction.

Day 45: Planet of Giants - Crisis

The final part of this three part story resumes where the Doctor and Susan are about to drown after Smithers pulls the tap. There’s some good acting when Susan and the Doctor are in the overflow pipe watching the water go past them.

We are introduced to the final two supporting cast members. Bert and Hilda who appear to be a couple and Hilda is the one answer the phone and is the one that starts to put things together. It all starts when Forrester decides to impersonate Farrow by putting a handkerchief over the bottom of the phone. It was never going to work and its all Forrester’s fault by thinking that this was going to work.

The regulars have to do a nice selection of weird and wonderful things. They first try and prop up the phone to raise the alarm but being so small it’s a difficult task and also it doesn’t work because their voices are too low to understand. It does achieve something as it further puzzles Hilda. I love the cut away that they use when the phone is being propped up. It’s such a funny sight and its obvious how they are doing it. Not quite sure how they could have done it without looking daft so it may have been a bit harsh of me to make fun of it. When that doesn’t work they try something far more ambitious. The plan is to set a fire in the lab to try and alert the authorities to the lab. They try and use a match stick against the gas tap. There’s some clever editing done to try and make it look bigger than a studio. The explosion is well done and it’s at this point that the policeman walks in and as their story ends it seems that they are being apprehended.

Barbara’s getting worse and by the halfway point she’s fainted. When she recovers we learn that once they get back to the TARDIS they will return to normal size and she will be better so it’s a matter of trying to get the police to the house whilst getting back to the TARDIS in time. They do and the Doctor manages to bring a massive nut that when it goes inside the TARDIS it shrinks to its normal size. It’s a good bit of special effect.

The central performances are all good and no one really puts a foot wrong. Even Susan is given a good time in this story and its one of those rare stories where everyone is given a good crack of the whip. The supporting cast at times almost steals the show with Forrester being one of my favourite baddies so far in the show. Hilda and Bert were good late additions to the story and even though it was late in the story it was just right and they because quite important to the story.

The cliffhanger is leading us into the second Dalek story and the final story for Carole Ann Ford. As it is we don’t see anything because the scanner is faulty. As a three part story this is better than the second one as its more action packed and fun than the middle episode. There is a nice bit of drama with Barbara and trying to stop Forrester and Smithers. I have always liked this story and watching it like this shows why it wouldn’t have worked as a four parter. When the DVD was released they wasted their time in trying to reconstruct in some feeble attempt to make us wonder and feel like we were robbed but to be honest there was a lot of padding in that reconstructed episode and it works much better like we have it.

Day 44: Planet of Giants - Dangerous Journey

The episode starts with the regulars trying to not get killed by a cat. It’s actually quite good moment as they are waiting for the cat to get bored. Once it does then the story moves on and we are introduced to Smithers who seems to be working with Forester and is just as calm about the death of Farrow. He tries to be someone who wants the same as Forrester but is more interested in the scientific fame than the money.


There is a fair amount of credit that should go to Raymond Cusick. He has managed to create the sets for the regulars to walk around and do it too the right scale. The sets look brilliant and even when they are looking at a giant photo of something its still impressive. Also the fly that Barbara sees is well realised. The four regulars wander from one place to the other and its back to the amusing briefcase for Ian and the first time for Barbara and one of them get a tap from a paperclip which just adds to the madness of this tale.

There is an extra threat introduced in this story after Barbara picks up some wheat which at the time has this chemical on and its clear that its could kill her. Not quite sure why Barbara doesn’t persist in telling Ian that she has touched the insecticide. Even when she gets the chance towards the episode and she lets the opportunity slide. This might be to prolong some sort of exciting in the final episode.

There’s a shot where the Doctor is climbing up the pipe and he looks exhausted which is either acting or not (cant tell). William Hartnell and Carole Ann Ford get to do some good acting together and it’s the first time in a long time since its just been them two. It’s a nice opportunity to see what they were like before Barbara and Ian joined them. It’s a good performance from Ford and even though she’s talked down to by Ian its her interaction with her grandfather that is nice in this episode.

The B-Plot of this story is the DN6 insecticide. Forester has killed Farrow and the thing about Smither is that he is just a slightly less horrible person that Forrester and he’s quite a slow person because he spends most of the episode trying to clean up Farrow’s blood. He also never really wants to get involved in what Forester is doing even though he will benefit from it. It is Forester that is the fun part of this bit of the story and it’s Alan Tilvern that make it fun to watch. Sadly though not much tends to happen in this bit and its good how it tends to have a play like feel with just the two of them.

The cliffhanger is just as barmy as the previous one. The danger in this cliffhanger comes from a sink, as I write this it just seems to get stranger than I ever thought it was. As an episode it seemed to move along at a good pace and the idea of a tiny Doctor and a tiny Barbara is quite an amusing one. It’s clear why they reduced it to three episodes because there isn’t much of a story in four episodes.

Day 43: Planet of Giants: Planet of Giants

The second season of Doctor Who starts with a three part story. It was intended to be a four part but was reduced to three to make it more tighter. If you buy the DVD then you will the truly awful reconstructed episode. This opening episode doenst have to do a reprise so there its not clear just how much time has passed since the last episode. At the start of the episode the doors opening during flight and was quites interesting is that presumably outside is the vortex and yet its basically a white cyclorama. There must have been a worry for the viewers at the time this was transmitted that it was going to be like Inside the Spaceship which of course it isn’t.


There’s a lovely moment when the Doctor apologies to Barbara for being snappy with her. He admits that he loses his manners at stressful moments. This episode sees the return of the fault locator, its days are numbered but it was quite fun to see it. It’s clear that something has happened and when the regulars leave the TARDIS they notice that something isn’t quite right and the natural assumption for the viewer is the that the Giants refer to something else and the regulars are normal height.

It takes just before the half way mark before they figure out that they have been reduced in size. They spot an ant and also the tail end of an earthworm. At this point the story moves to introducing the supporting cast. Well we just get two of them. Mr Forrester is instantly a horrible character. He is behind a new insectide and is more worried about the money he would lose than its affects. I think that Forrester is a wonderful character and Alan Tilvern plays it brilliantly. Forrester kills the government man because he doesn’t give him the result that he wanted. It was a brief but important scene.

Ian is caught in a briefcase and he gets to do some fantastic acting in the briefcase. Not quite sure where you learn that sort of acting but it’s a unintentially funny moment. After Ian gets ‘caught’ Susan becomes a bit too hysterical and its seems like its back to square one. It’s another reason why you can understand what made Carole Ann Ford want to leave the show.

It’s not something that you notice at first but it’s a very small cast. There are only 6 speaking parts including the regulars. It’s a very tight number of characters in this story and that’s always good because it means that people will get more action.

This is an notable episode because it is the first to be worked on by Dudley Simpson who would go on to work on Doctor Who through out the 1960’s and 1970’s.

The cliffhanger is an absolutely barmy one. After being reunited, Susan screams and they all look at an extreme close up of a cat. It’s the only time in the shows history (until Survival 25 years later) where a cat becomes menacing. It’s a good opening episode. It’s clear that the production team felt comfortable to try and do something different because they feel that the audience could suspend their believe and go with the flow. I have always liked this story and it’s a good opening episode.

Day 34: The Sensorites - A Race Against Death

This is the first time that Jacqueline Hill hasn’t featured at any point in an episode. Barbara is still on the spaceship and with Ian sick for most of the episode. He’s up on his feet by the end of the episode but he’s not 100%. The race against death that the title suggests is more of a sprint as its dealt with relatively quickly and Ian is up and about by the 2/3 mark. The Doctor is quick to figure out what might be causing Ian’s encounter with the floor.


The First Elder is quite trusting of the humans yet the Second Elder isn’t so keen. There is a nice split with some wanting to work with the humans and let them have what they need whilst some think that they shouldn’t be allowed this courtesy. It’s an interesting bit of conflict and it plays out well in the episode. The City Administrator jokes about not being able to tell the humans apart and that they don’t carry any signs of position. This is a theme of the episode and it is Carol that gives the city administrator a way of tricking the humans. The City Administrator works quick to come up with a plan.

William Hartnell seems to be in his prime in this episode as he goes from being angry at the First and Second Elders but then progresses to being the scientist. It’s good when the Doctor isn’t just satisfied with finding a cure but finding out the source of the problem and goes on an expedition. As William Russell is playing the patient for most of the episode it falls to Carole Ann Ford to be one of the people driving the story and she does it well and the partnership between Hartnell and Ford is one of the best things about this episode.

There is a nice montage where they are trying to find out where the poisoned water is coming from. It’s not something that we have seen before but it helps pass the time.

The City Administrator stages a coup d'etat when he steals the sash of the First Elder after he goes on a rant about the Doctor pretending to look for a cure and Ian pretending to be ill. He also manages to intercept the antidote. Now this could have led to another episode of trying to find the cure but its quickly resolved and it doesn’t hold up the story. It’s strange that with so little really happening the episode moves along at a good pace.

The last part of the story sees the Doctor venture into the caverns where he starts to suspect that this isn’t just a case of water poisoning. There is a myth about there being monsters in the caverns. The Doctor is rather blasé about these so called monsters and so goes straight into the darkness without so much as a care in the world.

The cliffhanger is a cracker. The Doctor is in a very dimly lit tunnel and comes across a possible conclusion to his mission and the light focuses on his face as he is ‘looking’ at a roar. Who knows what is making that noise. This story is impressing me just as much as it did when I have watched it in one go in the past.

Day 33: The Sensorites - Hidden Danger

The start of the episode sees the regulars trying to prevent Susan from going with the Sensorites. There is a nice moment of the Doctor, Susan and Barbara are teaming against Susan. We get the first bit of proper friction between the Doctor and Susan. It’s the first time that Susan has defied her grandfather and it causes the Doctor to be angry in a way that we haven’t really seen before. Ian thinks that Susan has been hypnotised by the Sensorites but Barbara tells him that she’s just growing up. Considering that she’s an alien and they haven’t really talked about alien things how would Barbara know she’s growing up.


The Doctor has another reason why he doesn’t like the Sensorites and that’s because he feels they are turning his granddaughter against him. It doesn’t really last long but it seems to be the reason why everybody goes to the sense-sphere. There is a plot contrivance to explain Jacqueline Hill’s holiday and that is she is staying up with Maitland whilst everyone else goes to the sense-sphere.

We get to learn about why the Sensorites aren’t quite trusting of humans. Due to a previous human encounter the Sensorites on their planet are dying. It makes the reason why the Sensorites do what they do more understanding and you can sympathise with them. We finally get to see something other than the spaceship and we get to encounter more Sensorites. A downside the characters show themselves in this story as we get to see their feet. They look like ducks feet.

The sets for the Sensorites is quite good. It’s a lot brighter than the spaceship and so it is a nice warming place to visit. The sets are done so that it feels like a big place and not just a couple of sets put next to each other. There is a sense of scale and its good to get out of the confines of the spaceship.

They all look the same as the only difference is the black sash that some of them wear. Otherwise there is no way of telling them apart which is going to be difficult but there is a minor difference because some are a bit portly and some are slimmer.

It’s good that the Sensorites are just as distrusting to people that they don’t know just like humans can be. This fear is something that runs through the episode quite blatantly and it’s not something that’s been explored like this before. John has the ability to tell who is evil and who isn’t and despite not really being in the episode that much his involvement is quite good and he’s been the most consistent thing in the story.

No sooner have the humans arrived than someone is trying to kill them. The city administrator is going all the way to try and kill the humans. Just when it looks like that the regulars are going to kill them they are stopped by the First Elder. However it’s just seems to delay the inevitable as Ian becomes ill. After moments of coughing he just stands up and collapses to the floor and we are told he is dying.

It’s a really good cliffhanger as it puts Ian in genuine danger. Unlike in the Aztecs when he was in the tunnel filled with water I think if I were watching this for the first time then I would wonder whether Ian was going to make it. I thought that the episode was a transitional one as we move from the spaceship to the Sensorites home world and its good that there seems like a purpose to it but also a genuine meance. Best episode of the stry.

Day 32: The Sensorites - The Unwilling Warriors

After the great clifhanger in ‘Strangers in Space’ we get our first proper glimpse of the Sensorites. It’s just as well that this story was made in black and white because I think in colour they don’t quite have the same impact that they do in monochrome. Something I never commented on in the cliffhanger was how I liked that out of the Doctor, Ian, Maitland and Carol. It was only Ian that walked around like he was the most mentally strongest of the four.


There is a moment when John is talking to thin air but he is looking just to the side of the camera. It’s a nice moment. Stephen Dartnell gives a superb performance and it helps add to the tension. It’s good who they have turned the one person who has been affected the most by the Sensorites and as a result is more strange, is the one that they turn to for help. They are still using that stupid little laser blaster to get through the door. Still cant believe they are using something so ridiculously small.

Barbara and Susan continue to be a good double act in the early part of this episode. Working together to calm John down. Susan is the one that comes up with the idea of telepathy and talks about a previous adventure that they have. She talks about the planet Esto. Susan’s involvement in this story is becoming stronger and its nice to see Susan to become better written for after the inconsistent recent episodes.

There is a nice theory about why the Sensorites are doing what they are doing and why John’s hair has turned white. Ian surmises that John has discovered something and they are trying to stop him or the team from going down to the sense-sphere. It’s all down to fear and that they don’t want the humans to go back to earth and bring other to ravage their world. When its explained you sort of understand why they have felt the need to act the way they have and it explains why they don’t actually harm them even though they are effectively kept prisoner.

Ian’s first encounter with the Sensorites is a good one as he is prepared to get violent if he needs to. It’s perhaps the downside of being the action hero of the group that he instantly resorts to this instead of trying to talk and reason with them. William Russell is good in this episode and has some good scenes. As does William Hartnell who’s best moment comes when he is standing up to the Sensorites. It was quite interesting to note that in the previous episode he was having a go a Maitland for the laser being so slow on the door yet in this episode he is a lot more calmer because he understand that anger leaves them open to attack.

Mervyn Pinfield’s direction is very good as he keeps it very tense for large parts of the story. At times it feels claustrophobic and Raymond Cusick does a good job in creating some good sets. The lighting was another thing that helped to create a wonderful spaceship and that credit goes to Peter Murray who keeps it light in the main control room but when it came to the corridor and the sleeping quarters it is a different matter and the lighting makes it look menacing.

We get the first proper encounter between the humans and the Sensorites. The Sensorites want them to stay on the sense-sphere where they will live there until they die but the humans don’t want that and there is a nice moment when the Doctor uses his anger to hurt the Sensorites.

Susan’s telepathy comes into proper use towards the end when the Sensorites contact her directly. Apparently the Sensorites and Susan work out a plan that leads to her going with the Sensorites and the humans surviving. It comes out of the blue and that is what makes it a good cliffhanger. The episode as a whole was good because it continued the atmospheric tension that we saw in the first episode and didn’t just put it to one side now that the introduction episode is out of the way but instead built on it. This story is just as good as I remember thinking the first time I saw it.



Day 31: The Sensorites - Strangers in Space

The Sensorites is one of those stories that when I first saw it was bowled over by. It’s another long story but written by Peter R Newman and my advise to anyone reading this would be to buy the DVD and watch the documentary about him as its one of the saddest and most impressive documentaries that I remember seeing on a Doctor Who DVD. There is a mystery about whether they have landed or not. There is a nice moment when they talk about how they have all changed since that very first episode. Amazingly its been eight months since the series started and its almost like they are reminiscing with the audience about how far they have all come since that very first episode .The moment where they walk from the TARDIS into the spaceship control room was a nice bit of continuity.

It seems like the two people they encounter are dead and its quite a sombre opening. After accepting the fact that they are dead there is a surprising moment when the chap starts to move. It turns out that they were in a deep sleep.

The woman is called Carol and the man is called Maitland and their story is that the ship is by a planet called the Sense-sphere. They don’t kill them but actually go to the trouble feeding them. They don’t sound like your typical alien. It’s at this moment that we learn that Susan has telepathic abilities. It starts when she senses something. This isn’t really given much time to settle in our minds but its enough to encourage the regulars to leave and go back to the TARDIS. The taking of the lock seems like another excuse to prevent the regulars from leaving. It’s similar to what was used in ‘The Keys of Marinus’. When Barbara smells something burning I don’t get why they don’t think to check the TARDIS or how they could miss the Sense-sphere taking the lock of the TARDIS. It’s not that great a distance to the TARDIS.

The first shot of the Sense-sphere isn’t a good one as its clearly a glove. It’s good that we don’t get a good full look of them. All we get is a glove and their head. By not showing us the full creature its making the viewer want to seem them all that much more.

There is regular mention of a third member of the crew called John. He seemed to be the worst affected by what the Sensorites have been doing and seems to be lurking around parts of the ship that Maitland and Carol don’t go to. In fact they don’t seem to have any urge to look for him until they realise that Susan and Barbara are missing. This is when the story starts to get going because it becomes very tense and atmospheric. It is Barbara and Susan that get separated and are the first to encounter John. He doesn’t exactly come out of it very well. Both Carole Ann Ford and Jacqueline Hill do very well in this story.

There’s a fun moment when they are trying to get through a door to get to Susan and Barbara with the smallest device ever. It wouldn’t get you into a can of beans let alone a door.

The cliffhanger was brilliant and it was the first time since An Unearthly Child: Episode 1 that I was genuinely stunned by what I saw. It was a Sensorite popping up into the window and its must have been great to think what was going to happen in the next episode. Despite not much happening in this episode I still enjoyed it. I thought the introduction of Carol and Maitland were good additions and helped interact with the regulars. A good opening episode.